Consort of Rebels

by Sadie Moss

  Cold steel met my fingertips, and I could’ve wept for joy. My dagger.

  As Rain raised his flaming blade high in both hands, I sat up quickly, yanking the dagger from its sheath. In one smooth motion, I plunged it into his gut, twisting as hard as I could.

  His eyes went wide. A small grunt of pain and surprise escaped him.

  Then he brought his own sword down.

  The blade pierced my midsection, forcing me back down. Pain beyond anything I’d ever felt tore through my body as the blade both cut and burned. I screamed, my vocal cords shredding with the agony of the sound. He pulled the sword roughly out of my belly, and a new kind of pain flooded me.

  Something hot and wet spread beneath my body.

  I couldn’t sit up.

  I could only turn my head weakly to the side as Rain stumbled away from me. His sword sizzled, wet with my blood. He banished it with a flick of his wrist and used both hands to pull the dagger out of his stomach.

  Fuck. It wasn’t fair. We’d both landed a blow, but one of us had used a fucking sword made of fire.

  And one of us still had power to spare.

  As I watched through half-lidded eyes, Rain cupped his hands over his stomach, a bright glow emanating from his palms. The blood that was welling through his fingers slowed and finally stopped.

  Keeping one hand on his stomach and walking with a hunched gait, Rain crossed to the door. He pushed it shut before waving a hand at the large chair Eben had once occupied. The chair floated over, and he wedged it in front of the door.

  Straightening, but still breathing hard, Rain crossed back to the large machine in the middle of the room. He checked the crystal, hovering his hand over it and whispering to himself again. When he was satisfied, he stepped back two paces. Raising both hands, he sent small streams of electricity into the joints of the machine, his muttered whispers growing louder.

  With a metallic whine, the pieces of the machine began to move, spinning and whirling at different speeds. A low whump, whump, whump sound filled the space.

  Blackness edged my vision, so it took me a moment to realize what I was seeing. The night sky above the hole in the dome wavered, like the horizon on a hot day. That same wavering distortion filtered down toward the crystal, almost imperceptible.

  The stone glowed, refracting light through the potion coating it and sending beautiful patterns all around the room. Then the beams of light suddenly merged into one. Pure magic streamed out from the crystal to join the small sphere of power suspended inside the whirring metal orb. It pulsed and grew slightly.

  Swallowing was difficult. Breathing was difficult. But I couldn’t tear my gaze away from the incredible, horrifying sight of magic being collected like water through a straw.

  Rain’s voice reached a fever pitch, his words loud and fast. As he spoke, he slowly walked around the machine. Then he stepped directly into the beam of magic transferring from the crystal to the ball inside the spinning metal arms.

  His body jerked, his words cutting off, and for a moment I thought something had gone wrong.

  Maybe the magic wasn’t accessible to him this time either?

  Then he laughed, holding his hands out to the side. Light emanated from his body, glowing from his eyes and even his mouth. As if he’d swallowed a star.

  It had worked. Rain was pulling magic from the world and transferring it to himself. He would become as powerful as a god—and regardless of whether those who lost their magic survived the pull, their lives would be forfeit anyway.

  I let my eyes drift shut, almost beyond caring as a bone-deep weariness tugged at me. We had tried. We had failed. I just wished death would hurry up and take me so I wouldn’t have to listen to Rain’s awful, raspy laugh anymore.

  Gray eyes.

  My father’s eyes. Full of hope and love.

  My grandmother’s eyes. Glistening with understanding.

  Beautiful green eyes, so full of emotion I could spend my life staring into them and never get enough. Sweet blue eyes that shone with kindness and laughter. Brown eyes like melted chocolate, warm and happy. And eyes so dark they were almost black, beckoning me to fall deeper into their swirling depths.

  So many people had already died because of Rain. He’d taken my family from me. I wouldn’t let him take my four too. I wouldn’t let him destroy any more families.

  The small pilot light of magic still burned inside me, guttering as my life force slowly dwindled. I had tried every kind of magic I could think of against Rain.

  Except one.

  Jae had told me in our lessons that a mage of my power should be able to access and control all four elements. But we’d never gotten to earth.

  “Ivy?” My voice was faint and rough. I wasn’t sure she could hear me over the noise of the machine.

  But a moment later, her face appeared above mine. I could see her better now, and I wondered fleetingly if it was because she’d made herself more opaque again or if it was just because I was dying.

  “What? What can I do?” Her hands fluttered over me, as if she wanted to touch my body, to try to heal me. But of course she couldn’t.

  “I need you to do something for me,” I whispered. “Go back to the main level. Tell everyone to get out.”

  Her brow furrowed. “But what about you?”

  “I have to finish something here. Tell them I’ll be… I’ll be right behind them.” The lie tasted like ash on my tongue, but I needed to say it. They’d never leave without me otherwise. “They have transport spells. Tell them to get out of the tunnels. Off the mountain.”

  Speaking was becoming increasingly difficult. So was breathing.

  I needed to save whatever strength I had left for what I planned to do next, so I stopped talking and just gazed up at Ivy, a silent plea in my eyes. The ghost was no stranger to death, and I knew she saw it on my face. Tears shimmered on her translucent cheeks, but she nodded.

  “I’ll tell them.” She hesitated, her big brown eyes brimming with sadness. “I don’t want you to die, Lana. Not even if you become a ghost.”

  Oddly touched by her sentiment, I smiled softly. “Don’t worry. I’ll be okay.”

  Another lie, but this one contained a kernel of truth. I wouldn’t live through this, but if the last thing I saw in this world was Rain’s machine collapsing, I would be okay.

  The ghost rose slowly, smoothing her dress. With one last look down at me, she squared her shoulders and walked quickly through the barricaded door.

  I turned my attention to Rain. Magic continued to pour in through the opening in the ceiling and filter through the crystal, and he still stood directly in the beam’s path. His head was tilted back, and he no longer seemed aware of my presence—or anything at all, really. He was high on the power filling his body, on the magic running through his veins.

  Letting my eyes drift shut, I extended my focus out around me. The floor in this room was smooth and polished, but it was still made out of stone. Just like the walls and ceilings were. I was surrounded by it.

  Jae had never taught me how to use earth magic. Flame, I understood. It burned hot and bright, there in a flash and gone the next. Water and wind were more difficult for me. They both felt ephemeral, delicate—although their delicacy was an illusion. But what was earth?

  Earth was solid.

  Earth was stubborn.

  It didn’t negotiate, and it didn’t ask permission.

  The corner of my lip twitched. Maybe earth is my element.

  I let my magic spread in tendrils through the rock and dirt beneath me then up through the walls and into the ceiling above.

  Then I pulled.

  The stone resisted at first. It was bound fast, settled in place by eons of pressure. My power strained and my whole body tensed, causing agony to flare in my stomach. I released the pull, breathing hard. Gritting my teeth, I sent my magic out again, but instead of trying to rip the stones apart, I sent a shock of vibration through them.

  The floor rumbled, shak
ing beneath me.

  A moment later, a crack appeared in one wall, running up toward the ceiling like a seam opening on a too-tight dress.

  I pushed the magic harder, increasing the vibrations. More cracks appeared, and with a loud grating sound, a chunk of the ceiling collapsed. It hit the floor and exploded, breaking into smaller pieces of rock that flew across the room like missiles.

  Another piece of the ceiling caved in, and this one hit the whirling metal arms of Rain’s machine. With a grinding noise, they stopped spinning as the metal bent and contorted. Magic stopped filtering in from above, and when the flow from the crystal ebbed, Rain blinked slowly.

  His glowing eyes turned to the broken piece of machinery, and then to me. Rage contorted his features as he raised his hands.

  All the muscles in my body strained.

  Please gods! End this now.

  With a final push, I shoved every last bit of strength and magic I had into the earth around me. A jagged spike thrust up from the rock in front of Rain, piercing his body and lifting him off his feet as it grew upward. His eyes widened in shock and pain, and electric magic flared at his fingertips.

  Then, with an ear-splitting crack, another piece of the ceiling collapsed. Rain didn’t even have a chance to look up before it came down on him, crushing him and the crystal beneath its heavy weight.

  There was a bright flash of light, and I turned my face away.

  A second flash came, blinding in its intensity. The world went white, even through my closed eyelids.

  As the flare of light faded, darkness fell.

  The rumbling grew louder around me.

  My magic was tapped out; I was no longer using it to disrupt the stone.

  But the earth was stubborn. I’d started something, and it was damned well going to finish it.

  Through the exhaustion and pain, through the roaring in my ears, I thought I heard someone calling my name.

  Then I didn’t hear anything at all.

  Chapter 26

  Blackness.

  Silence.

  It was peaceful here, in this empty space where I floated.

  My body didn’t ache, and exhaustion no longer hung on me.

  Slowly, I drifted downward like a feather, finally settling on a soft, smooth surface.

  Warm breath tickled my ear. A large hand rested across my stomach, another on my ribcage. Muscled bodies pressed close to me, encasing me in a protective shell.

  If this is death, it’s not so bad.

  But it couldn’t be death. I felt far too solid for that.

  I gradually became aware of my own deep breathing, the weight of my eyelids, and the soreness of my muscles. But most notable was the absence of pain in my abdomen.

  Swallowing roughly, I tried out my vocal chords, murmuring a soft, unintelligible noise.

  The breath at my ear stopped. The hands and bodies pulled away from me.

  Well, fuck. If I’d known that was going to happen, I never would’ve made a peep.

  I mumbled again in protest at the loss, shifting restlessly. My body still didn’t feel quite like my own, and when I ordered my eyelids to open, they flat-out refused.

  “Killer? Oh, thank fuck!”

  Fen.

  I tried again to force my eyes open, my hand groping for him blindly. He caught it, raising it to his lips. He rubbed his nose across my knuckles, inhaling the scent of my skin.

  Then suddenly, all their hands were on me again. A face pressed to my stomach, warm lips touched my forehead, and cool fingers traveled up my legs. The overload of sensations made me gasp, and my eyes finally flew open.

  Four faces peered down at me. My favorite faces in the entire world.

  “Godsdamn it, Lana! Don’t ever fucking scare us like that again!” Corin’s voice was too full of relief for his words to have much bite, and he buried his face in my stomach again, as if he could somehow meld us into one being.

  Akio leaned against the headboard of the large bed in my room in Beatrice’s house. He brushed my hair away from my face, his dark eyes gleaming. “Welcome back, kitten.”

  Jae kneeled by my feet, his hands tracing patterns over my legs, leaving goose bumps in their wake. His elegant features were tight, like he couldn’t quite trust what he was seeing yet.

  “We thought we lost you,” he murmured, his grip tightening on my thigh.

  “I…” I cleared my throat and tried again, my voice scratchy. “I thought you did too.” A sudden panic rose in my chest. I hadn’t just imagined it, had I? Gone into some kind of vivid hallucination brought on by shock and blood loss? “Rain! Is he—?”

  “He’s dead.” Fen grinned at me, though his chocolate eyes were shadowed. “You did it, killer. You stopped him.”

  Relief flooded me. “I used earth magic. I tore the place down. Did everyone get out? I told Ivy to warn you.”

  The wolf shifter’s expression darkened. “Oh, she delivered your message, all right. Then after we told her where she could shove it, she agreed to bring us to you.”

  “It didn’t take much convincing, actually. I don’t think she liked your plan any better than we did.” Akio arched a brow at me.

  I sat up slowly, taking my time so I could let the world stop spinning. “It wasn’t so much a plan as a last ditch effort. It was my only option. Rain had started the magic pull.”

  Jae nodded solemnly. “We know.”

  My head whipped toward him, the sudden movement blurring my vision again. “How? Did it take your magic? Did it kill people?”

  “No one died. But we learned after the fact that several people were almost entirely drained. Then there were two huge pulses of magic, and the pull stopped.”

  “I tried to stop him from turning it on,” I murmured. “But he was more powerful than me. I couldn’t fight anymore. He….”

  My hand went to my stomach. I was wearing a soft gray T-shirt and a pair of pajama pants. I lifted the tee, staring down at the large pink scar trailing across my abdomen. Even though it was healed, the sight of the thick line brought back a stab of remembered pain. That had been a killing blow.

  I bit my lip, looking up at Jae. “Thank you for healing me.”

  “Actually,” he said, a smile ghosting across his face, “it wasn’t just me.”

  My brow furrowed. “Then who…?”

  Fen reached around me to punch Corin in the arm, grinning ear-to-ear. I turned to the blond man, eyes widening, and he ran a hand through his hair, a flush rising in his cheeks.

  “You?”

  He shrugged. “Jae had used so much magic already—in the fight, and to keep the ceiling from collapsing on us while we tried to get to you. Once we finally found you, we used a transport spell to get out. But you were in bad shape. Jae tried to heal you, but you were slipping away.”

  I reached out to grip his hand, and he squeezed mine tightly.

  “I couldn’t lose you, Lana. I put my hands on you, not even knowing what I was trying to do, just wanting more than anything to keep you here with us. Light burst out of my palms and poured into you, and your wounds finally started to close.”

  “Corin.” I stared at him, touched and awed. “How…?”

  He looked down. “I went to talk to Asprix after everything settled down. He’s pretty fascinated by all of us now. I think if we let him, he’d lock us up in a room and study us for days.”

  I chuckled, relieved to hear that the old reader had survived the fight. “Yeah, not gonna happen.”

  “I told him you’d say that.” One side of Corin’s mouth lifted in a grin before he grew serious again. “He did find a small amount of magic inside me. Don’t get too excited; I’m not Gifted or anything. It’s probably yours, from the bond. I was only able to access it because of how badly I needed it in that moment. I forced it to act.”

  “That’s incredible,” I breathed, then tugged his hand to make him look at me. “I knew you’d always protect me.”

  He smiled, but his grip on my hand didn’t loosen
. We had come so close to losing each other. It would take some time for that fear to pass.

  I glanced around at the rest of my four. “Was Olene there? Or did I imagine that?”

  Jae shook his head. “No, she was there. Noble brought her.”

  “How? Why?”

  “Their attack on the palace was more difficult than expected. More Gifted had joined Rain’s ranks than we’d hoped. Olene went into hiding after he killed Theron, but when word of the attack on the palace got out, she came to help.”

  My eyes bugged out of my head. “Representative Romo came to help the Blighted take the People’s Palace?”

  “Well, I think it was more that she came to help anybody trying to unseat Rain.” Fen chuckled. “But the end result was pretty much the same. Once he realized Rain had come after us, Noble brought her to Rain’s lair.”

  My stomach twisted, remembering the sight of her lying unconscious on the ground. “Did she survive the fight?”

  “Yes. She took a bad hit, but it didn’t kill her. When Ivy came to warn us, Noble got her out with a transport spell.” Akio slipped off the bed, coming around the side to stand over us all.

  “And is she… still alive?”

  “Of course, kitten. She’s been granted amnesty by the Resistance in exchange for her continued help. Several other Gifted officials were captured in the fight, but believe it or not, Noble isn’t big on public executions.”

  I grimaced. “Yeah. Me neither.”

  Faint voices filtered in through the door, drawing my attention.

  “Speaking of…” Jae lifted a brow. “That’s probably him. He usually comes by about this time of day.”

  His words pricked at a question that had been lingering in my mind. “Usually? How long was I out?”

  “Three days.” Akio crossed his tattooed arms over his chest. He was predictably shirtless again, but I didn’t mind. In fact, I was seriously considering seeing if I could get him to agree to never wear a shirt again.

  “Three days?” My eyes bugged. I let go of Corin and Fen’s hands and scooted toward the edge of the bed.